Health camp in Nagybajom
On Monday (19.06.2023) our Health Camp in Nagybajom started. We started the morning, as we did every other day, with a healthy snack prepared by the children, and then continued with a visit to the local Reformed church. In the afternoon there were several presentations for the children, where we learned from a young dietician from Nagybajom the secret of a balanced diet (thank you Virág!), which weed is a weed and which plant is useful. If there was a spare half an hour, the mentors were always on hand to organise an impromptu ping-pong tournament, which, despite the heat, always attracted enough young people. We ended the day with a convivial ice cream, where we immediately discussed the lessons of the day.
Ádám Balogh, Volunteer
The second day of this year’s health camp for group 3 from Nagybajom has started. On this day, we had to get to the community centre a little early, as there was a special lecture starting at 9am. On Tuesday we were scheduled to make porridge, so we started with the help of Tündi. By heating the milk and then thickening it with oatmeal and other vegetable seeds, breakfast was relatively easy. Fruzsina Horváth, Réka Huszár and Kamilla Nagy took on the roles of the little cuckoos. As soon as we consumed this, we had one of the most important presentations of the day. Richárd Kovács, a policeman of Nagybajom origin, told us about the main stages of his life. This was also significant because we are talking about a man of roma origin who was able to break out of very great poverty and achieve successes he had never even dreamed of. The children had to show a person who lived in the same difficult circumstances as they do now, or perhaps even more difficult circumstances, and yet was able to say to this life that he or she didn’t want more of it, and wanted to show that they could achieve what everyone else could achieve, and much more. Perhaps the very first such guide in his life was when he saw some extremely muscular police officers at a competition and decided he wanted to win one himself. That’s where the idea of becoming a policeman came from. He started training and then, through tremendous hard work, he built success after success. He won the aforementioned competition three times to become Mr. Cop. According to him, it wasn’t the training that was a huge challenge, but rather sticking to a healthy diet, but there was no question, he had to do it, because THE GOAL WAS THERE BEFORE THE EYE. From there, it didn’t stop, he was invited to more and more places. From a small child in Nagybajom, he became a worldly-wise policeman, winner of many awards and recognitions. In his work, too, he strives for ever greater grades, and is constantly achieving them. And in education he has made a lot of progress, after difficult primary school years, again to achieve his goals, he had to complete a challenging National University of Public Service and a liberal arts degree, not to mention that he is still studying today, as he wants to obtain a law degree, so he can be a very big role model not only for children but also for adults. The informative programme was followed by lunch and then thought-provoking, yet enjoyable games organised by Ádám Balogh. As long as it was a health camp, we thought it important to have a basic educational session for girls and boys. The mother of one of our group members (Evelin Buzsáki), Éva Kovácsné Balogh Kovács, gave a presentation on menstruation and the prevention of STDs, while Zalán Győző, a university student of Nagybajom 3, gave a presentation on the difficulties and changes of adolescence for adolescent boys. Fortunately, we were invited to join the half-hour online chat with dietician Virág Kovács, who explained the benefits, importance and ingredients of healthy eating, which was also crucial because Virág also compiles a lot of Olympic athletes’ diets, so she could tell us about even more special things. To end the day, the kids were a bit moved, as the Buda Health Centre not only gave a detailed and interesting presentation mainly about the stresses on our spine, muscles and joints, but they also prepared us with playful, interactive exercises and measurements. Of course, there were some more reserved children, but by the end everyone had taken part in the activity, and we rewarded them with an ice cream, and then we headed home to get ready for the next day’s activities. I think the children will have a lot to think about and rest for the rest of the day. We would like to thank the speakers for their preparation and their help.
Zalán Győző, Nagybajom group 3
The third breakfast of our camp was wholemeal bread baked in the community centre and a delicious stew made with it. Everyone ate as much as they could, as the more the children prepare the food, the more they enjoy each bite. The meal was followed by a presentation by our volunteer, Tündi. She works as a nurse, so she was able to show us a lot about the development and treatment of various wounds. By the end of the lecture, the children could easily distinguish between wounds and injuries caused by stings, cuts, chemicals, punctures and burns. She talked a lot about the different cases she had seen in her work and fortunately the children were open to the subject. The second part of the presentation was perhaps even more enjoyed by the little ones. For example, they could try out what it feels like to use a massage machine. The highlight, however, was clearly when our mentor, Roland, was shown how to spit. Throughout the morning there were also some who had bandages applied, but a warm-feeling device was also passed around by Tündi among the campers, again as part of another cure. A quarter of an hour before noon the programme was over and we were off for lunch. As the previous two days had been long enough, the children were home by 4pm today. Of course, ice cream was not to be missed this time either. Tomorrow we will sleep in the community centre, which we are looking forward to.
Zalán Győző, Nagybajom group 3
Thursday’s programme was a bit different from the usual. At 9am we arrived at the community centre, where the children served each other a simpler breakfast of cereal. It is an important source of calcium and everyone loves it. Before 10am, we made a video call to our volunteer Chakee Chamupathi, who is currently living in Australia. It was a pleasure to see that one by one the children dared to speak, even if it was only for a short introduction or a sentence or two. Of course, there were also some who understood themselves a little better, and we were particularly pleased about that. The English programme was followed by a sports session. Eszter Pálfi, a member of the Nagybajom 2 group, gave a presentation on the importance and love of movement, showing us exactly what she considers important in her life. Volleyball is her favourite sport, but she also prefers other sports, which started an interactive discussion. Everyone said what they do, what exercise means to them and what they would most like to try. This was not the only day of sporting activities during the week; at the suggestion of the campers, we also organised a ping-pong tournament, which will continue after the camp. Continuing the day, we had lunch and then ice cream. After some rest and conversation, the presentations continued with the parents of our group mate Dorina Gál. Both of them live their daily lives in wheelchairs, which is why we thought it was important to invite them, to make the children realise that there are more important things in life than using social media and having petty, meaningless fights. Everything in life should be appreciated, nothing should be taken lightly, we should look out for each other. I think the little ones have taken in new and valuable information and I hope they reflect on what is real in life. We also thought it was important to do a maths test and a sociometric questionnaire with the children during the camp. These will help us in the future to know where the children are in terms of basic thinking and their positioning in the group. After the tests, the focus was on the holidays. Those who wanted to played football and those who didn’t, chatted and relaxed. We returned to the community centre at 8pm, where the packing of the rooms, the inflating of the mattresses and the preparation of the paprika potatoes began.
We ended Friday with an unusual tour. The children were divided into 4 groups and set off from the entrance of the Lencseni fish pond to the station of the small railway in Upper Kak. They could collect points on the 4 km stretch. On crossing the finish line, we assessed the children’s performance on the day’s hike and their work throughout the year. The latter measured academic achievement, community spirit and participation in tutoring. A ranking was established along these values. In an extremely close competition, the winner was Evelin Buzsáki, who took home the Pineapple Prize for the 2022-2023 school year! Congratulations!
Zalán Győző, Nagybajom group 3
health camp in big trouble